Home Favorites Get Tough Draw at Open

Bernard Tomic celebrates beating Sergiy Stakhovsky at the Sydney International tournament on Friday.

Australia’s Bernard Tomic has been drawn with world No. 1 and top seed Rafael Nadal in the first round of the Australian Open, while his compatriot Ashleigh Barty will face top seed Serena Williams in the first round of the women’s singles.

Australian No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt also has a tough start to the tournament as he faces number 24 seed Andreas Seppi of Italy. Hewitt, runner-up in the Australian Open in 2005, was knocked out in the first round last year. He comes into this event in good form, though, after beating Roger Federer in the final of the Brisbane International tournament on Jan. 5.

Australia’s James Duckworth, ranked 134th in the world, has been drawn against Federer, who is seeded six. Federer, 32 years old, has won the Australian Open four times but the Swiss was knocked out in the semifinals in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Another Australian – Jordan Thompson – will play 20th seed Jerzy Janowicz of Poland.

The bottom half of the draw has been kinder on the Australian pair Matthew Ebden and Samuel Groth, who line up against Nicolas Mahut of France and 28th seed Canadian Vasek Pospisil, respectively. Marinko Matosevic, the No. 3-ranked Australian male, has been drawn against Japan’s Kei Nishikori, Asia’s highest-ranked male tennis player. Nishikori, 24 years old, is seeded 17. Matosevic has never progressed beyond the first round of a Grand Slam singles event.

Friday’s draw was hard on Japan’s Go Soeda, too. He will face Wimbledon champion Andy Murray, the number four seed from the U.K. India’s top male singles player Somdev Devvarman is up against Feliciano López of Spain, who is seeded 26.

In the women’s draw, Australian No. 1 Samantha Stosur will play Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic. China’s Zheng Jie, who reached the semifinal of the Australian Open in 2010, has been drawn against Roberta Vinci, the 12th seed from Italy. Zheng isn’t seeded. Her compatriot Li Na, the fourth seed, will play an as yet unknown qualifier, as will her potential second-round opponent, the 43-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan. Date-Krumm played her first Australian Open in 1990.

The most eye-catching draw is the Nadal-Tomic encounter. The 27-year-old Nadal, already regarded as one of the greatest players in history, will go into the match as favorite, but Tomic is capable of causing an upset. The 21-year-old, who was born in Stuttgart, Germany, could take some encouragement from the fact that the Australian Open is Nadal’s least favorite Grand Slam.

Still, Nadal’s record in Melbourne is hardly a poor one. The Spaniard won the title in 2009 and was runner up in 2012 after reaching the quarterfinals in the two intervening years. He didn’t play in the tournament last year.

Tomic made his debut at the Australian Open in 2009 and he has always progressed beyond the first round. His best Grand Slam performance came in 2011 at Wimbledon, when he reached the quarterfinal, at the age of 18.

Nadal could be enviously eyeing the other end of the draw, where defending champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia has been paired with Lukas Lacko of Slovakia, who is ranked 90th in the world.